((four reviews in all! two from 6-20 and two from 6-21! thank you for your patronage! ... I wonder if I should put up the names of those who gave me the most honorable reviews for which I crave...? I think I will! And their reviews!))

NeferNeferi:

"Gaara stared at Temari as if she'd added a fifth spiky ponytail to the back
of her head." LOL! I laughed a lot when I read this. I could just imagine
Gaara looking at Temari just as the ponytail began to grow out of her head.
XD
This was an interesting chapter; I felt so sorry for Chikage. But now I think
Gaara must have, at least, heard something from that conversation... Anyway,
now I wonder what will he do or say? Please update soon, I want to know!

Your Demon:

haha. i thought you were talking about Shino from the Leaf village. i was
like wtf!? you might've wanted to use another name that's not from somewhere
else. :smiles: i liked it though. ha. she's dead. she deserves it. i think it
was a good chapter. :more happy dances:

Angel Fate of the Desert:

Lol, you live! Welcome from the land of the forgotten. XD
Anyways, these past chapters have been great; I'm glad you finally updated.
Now I wonder if Gaara heard that conversation? Please update soon!

Binti:

That was absolutely awesome!

((Okay, now I'm done wasting all of this space. Tell me if you like seeing what the people have written about my chapters and stuff. I see it all the time and I wondered if people actually LIKED it or not...

I lied... I'm not done yet. I just wanted to say... that I didn't mean to copy Shino's name from the series... I meant to type SHIMO... which I think means flower or something like that... but I thought it was Shino, until now... wow... the bug guy being named after a flower? I should have remembered that that could NOT be the case! lol enjoy this next part. it's about to get steamy up in here!))

Chapter 11: When a Monster is Anything But...

Gaara stood there, watching the half-naked redhead hold her book to her breasts-- they were bulging from the side as a result. He shook his head. He couldn't think of that now! Later, yes. Now... no. He wasn't a pervert. He was still "in-training."

"Get up, Chikage. We're going back... now." His words were few... and cold. Always cold.

Chikage shook her head. She was choosing to refuse a direct order from the redheaded sand god. Her thoughts were far too many for her to even begin to sort out. And more kept coming. How long had he been there? What did he hear? Did he even hear Shimo's words? And if not, why was the bitchy blonde's heart in his hands, her corpse on the ground? Why was he there? Was he spying again? Guess it wasn't that hard to sort out...

"Now," he said forcefully.

"I can't... you spied on me... you watched me..."

"I told you-- I was sent to get you for supper and I accidently appeared in your closet. I was going to get out when you went into your room... If I got out then, what would you have done?"

"I would have believed you. Whatever you said. But... you just made it look like you were coming in after I got on my... and then I found the sand..."

"Why does that make me any more guilty? I saw you put your underclothing on. I watched in your closet. I'm only male. What do you want me to do?" Gaara was so fed up with EVERYTHING being his fault! So he snuck a peek... he was there on accident in the first place! Was it really THAT bad?!

"I don't know... why did you kill her?"

Gaara looked back towards the girl's carcass. "Because she didn't deserve it."

"What? Deserve what?"

"To live."

Chikage looked at him with wide eyes. The heart in his hand was now still, blood dripping from it. It stained his hands crimson and it looked... so beautiful to her. "I'm sorry."

Gaara tried to contain his surprise. It was easy with years of experience under his belt. But his voice held a kernel of the emotion. "Why are you saying that?"

"I should have known that you wouldn't intentionally peek at me. That's not like you at all... I'm sorry that I jumped to conclusions. It's just... every other guy I've seen has bragged to his friends about doing perverted things like that."

"I didn't do it on purpose... but I won't say that I didn't enjoy seeing what I saw. Besides, I don't have anybody to brag to."

"Okay... I guess it's a little to late to keep being embarrassed... huh?" she asked, giving a small smile.

"Expecially since you went to the park half dressed. Your panties are still showing, by the way."

She went red again. "Well... you said that they were nice. So it shouldn't matter if they're covered or not. Just so long as no one else sees."

"Then it's a good thing I killed the only other person who did see..."

Chi sighed in relief. It was a little forced but only because she didn't think it was right to be happy about anyone's death. "Yes... thank you for killing her on my behalf."

"If anyone ever says that stuff to you again, tell me. More blood will be spilt..." He gave her the heart and said, "Go back home and get some pants on... I'll meet you there..." He disappeared into his sand... again. And Chikage was left in shock, her face growing warm from embarrassment... AGAIN. But this time... something else hit her. And it was fear. Fear of rejection. Fear of the truth. And fear of the knowledge that could be forced into her memory forever.

((Yet another cliff... don't you just want to throw me off of it for making you wait for another chapter to find out what happens next? Well... just so you know, I've got Choji at the bottom, waiting to expand to save my sarcastic ass. But between you and me... Choji doesn't know that he's just a last second thing in case Gaara doesn't catch me in his sand. I think he's mad at me because I had a raccoon in the middle of the road and I wrecked my car trying not to run it over. It was huge and my car's a breakin' down piece of crapola! Talk about bad luck there... but my tired is just fine and my car's still running. Seems crapola is pretty tough nowadays. Forgive me of my sins, Gaara-san!!))